Listening, not just hearing.

It's come to my attention lately that over the past few weeks, with the business of finishing school and exams, I've slipped a bit in my walk with God. I've still been reading the bible and praying, but it had become more of a chore than a joy.

Part of the problem, I've realised was that I was hearing and reading God's word but not really listening to it. Because I've been considering it more of a chore and because I've been more stressed about study and the other complexities of life, when I've been reading the word my mind has been elsewhere. As a result I've been reading it, but not truly listening to it. I haven't been taking notice of what God is teaching me, I haven't been applying it to my life, I haven't been rejoicing in the lessons God has for me and the depths of his mercy and grace.

As I started to realise that I had been slipping I began trying to fix it myself. Again not listening to God or just turning to him in prayer. We try so hard to fix things ourselves, but we are sinful and we cannot. Only God can bring us back to him. Only God can reveal to us where we have stuffed up and bring us back to a right standing before him through Christ. In pride it's so often easy to lose sight of that again.

I thought it would be worth posting this because perhaps you're facing the same problem. I didn't really recognise it until the last few days. I thought I was doing a good job when in reality I was legalistically doing chores that I thought would impress God. The truth is nothing we can ever do can impress God. That's why we need Jesus. That's why God is so gracious and merciful in saving us. We deserve none of it.

If this is you, then pray. Ask God for help. Be honest with him and yourself (Your not going to scare him with your honesty - he knows it all anyway). Read his word and take note of it - don't just do it as a chore, apply it to your life and rejoice in it (regardless of if it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside or not).

True satisfaction.

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John 4:13-14

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

This passage has always been confusing to me. I've never quite understood exactly what Jesus was talking about: why he jumps from topic to topic without directly answering the Samaritan woman's questions and what he meant by saying that anyone who accepted the living water he offers would never have to drink normal water again.

Last night in our family quiet time we read J. C. Ryle's commentary on this passage, and he made a comment that made it a whole lot clearer. Take a look:

Thousands of men have every temporal good thing that heart could wish, and are yet weary and dissatisfied. It is now as it was in David's time--"There be many that say, Who will show us any good." (Psalm 4:6.) Riches, and rank, and place, and power, and learning, and amusements, are utterly unable to fill the soul. He that only drinks of these waters is sure to thirst again. Every Ahab finds a Naboth's vineyard near by his palace, and every Haman sees a Mordecai at the gate. There is no heart satisfaction in this world, until we believe on Christ. Jesus alone can fill up the empty places of our inward man. Jesus alone can give solid, lasting, enduring happiness. The peace that He imparts is a fountain, which, once set flowing within the soul, flows on to all eternity. Its waters may have their ebbing seasons; but they are living waters, and they shall never be completely dried.

What Jesus is saying in this passage is that he can offer the woman, and us, something that the world can never give. Before we put our faith in Jesus we are continually chasing after satisfaction. We keep seeking what we think will make us happy, but in reality none of it lasts. We might feel accepted and loved for a short time, or content with our vast wealth for a moment, but it quickly flies away and we cannot grasp it or keep it close. Soon enough we go out in search of more, we need another fix, another drink. We truly are slaves of sin!

But what Jesus is saying is that he can offer true satisfaction and freedom from the endless cycle we are trapped in. Jesus alone can offer true satisfaction, and it comes through faith in him. At the fall (Genesis 3), the human race as a whole rejected God. Consequently they became sinners and lost their perfect relationship with him. We are exactly the same - we have sinned and we have lost our ability to fulfil our purpose: to glorify God and enjoy him forever. We are lost in a depraved cycle of trying to please ourselves, yet we can never truly be content - we are guilty and broken, slaves of sin and entirely corrupted by it.

That's why Jesus goes on to mention her husband, and then proves he is the Messiah by saying “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” She was searching for satisfaction in her relationships, yet could not find it because they are all broken by sin (we see that everywhere in the world now as well). What Jesus was offering her was far better then anything on this earth - it was forgiveness from sins and the promise of eternal contentment in God's presence, worshipping him in heaven for ever after death.

What do you search for your satisfaction in? If you're honest with yourself, unless it is Jesus, it never has and never can truly satisfy you. (Tell me if I'm wrong in that).

Through Jesus there is forgiveness and grace, a restoration of that relationship we had with God. Consequently we can return to some extent to that perfect satisfaction that Adam and Eve would have had in the garden: the contentment that is one of our basic desires as humans. Of course, while we are still on this earth it is still marred by sin and we are still flawed, but we look forward to when it will be complete in heaven.

I think that's what Jesus is talking about. As it is we continually need to come back to the things of this world to be 're-satisfied', but then we get thirsty again, and need to drink again. And again. And again. And again. And again, until our lives are gone. Jesus offers the drink that we only need to take once. He offers salvation to us, as the ultimate sacrifice, and when we put our faith in him we don't have to keep coming back for more. There is complete forgiveness in Jesus for everyone who truly puts their faith in him and repents. We don't need to continually be forgiven every time we sin - we don't need another sacrifice. That "Spring of water" - that salvation - doesn't just go away. Instead it "will become in [us] a spring of water welling up to eternal life" - it will continue and grow as we live for God in this life, and it will come to completion in heaven when we will be truly holy, truly satisfied in God alone and with him for all eternity.

In short the living water Jesus is talking about is salvation: his death and resurrection for us so that we can be forgiven. And it grows and becomes more and more satisfying as we continue to trust and obey him in our lives, both of which help us glorify and adore God for who he is and all he has done. That's where true satisfaction comes from: from fulfilling our purpose and both glorifying and enjoying God.

Here's another quote from Ryle to finish up, and I think it fits in:

The infinite willingness of Christ to receive sinners is a golden truth, which ought to be treasured up in our hearts, and diligently impressed on others. The Lord Jesus is far more ready to hear than we are to pray, and far more ready to give favours than we are to ask them. All day long He stretches out His hands to the disobedient and gainsaying. He has thoughts of pity and compassion towards the vilest of sinners, even when they have no thoughts of Him. He stands waiting to bestow mercy and grace on the worst and most unworthy, if they will only cry to Him. He will never draw back from that well known promise, "Ask and you shall receive--seek and you shall find." The lost will discover at the last day, that they had not, because they asked not.

Do you have this living water? Have you asked for it? Put your faith in Jesus and give up your sin! He is always willing to forgive!

I hope those thoughts were encouraging and challenging for you!
God Bless!
Nat.

An Unfair Exchange

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Romans 12:1

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

At first glance it may seem that it's unfair for God to ask us to live our entire lives as sacrifices to him. But that's because we're not seeing things in view of his mercy. The unfairness isn't that we have to serve God - that's an honour and a rich blessing, and we should get more joy from serving God then from our sin. The unfair exchange is that Jesus, who is God, all powerful and eternally perfect, holy, pure, just, loving and merciful, the creator and sustainer of everything in existence, came and died for us. Jesus, who had been in fellowship with God the father and the Holy Spirit eternally, came to earth, took our sin and God's wrath (that we rightfully should suffer for eternity) so that we could be forgiven. Then he rose again from the dead to prove it.

We cannot fathom what it was that Jesus gave up for us. We don't deserve it. We don't deserve any part of it - we are wretched sinners who hated and rejected God by living in sin. Yet he sent Jesus to save us.

Paul is telling us that we should live as sacrifices to God In view of that mercy. In view of the infinite sacrifice God made for us. When we see how much Jesus did for us, anything we can offer can never compete. That's why we could never save ourselves. If Jesus hadn't died for us, we would still be spiritually dead, living in sin. Because he saved our lives, bringing us to life, it makes sense that we should use that life to glorify and honour him alone.

Living as a sacrifice

In the Old Testament most of the sacrifices had one of two jobs. Some were given to pay for sin - those were fulfilled by jesus on the cross since he is the ultimate sacrifice for sin. The others were given in praise of God. Without doing any extra research on it, I thin that's what Paul is getting at - we need to live our lives as sacrifices in thankfulness of what he has done and in praise of who he is.

But what does this look like?

• Putting God first. That's the first commandment, and it's the one we struggle with most. It's so easy to slip into idolatry, to put other things before God without even realising. For me it's usually fear of man or love of friends that gets in the way. The desire for approval. For others it can be money or health or a wide range of other things
• Obeying God and giving up sin. We are sinful and we desire to sin. Instead of living that way, when we are saved we need to repent and give up sin. Jesus died to rescue us from slavery in sin, it is stupid to go back to it if you've turned to him. Obeying God glorifies him because it is us being in line with his character. He is the definition of perfection, and when we obey his laws we are acting in line with who he is. Paul says we are to be "holy and pleasing to God" - that means not sinful, since sin can never please God. Holiness means separate, and if we are to be separate from sin we need to give it up completely.
• Spending time praising God. It's easy to focus all our energy on doing the right things, but what God actually cares about is our hearts. He doesn't want us to be legalistic, he wants us to genuinely love him and submit to him out of that love. So, we need to spend time just in praise of God, rejoicing in who he is and what he has done - for us, for his people throughout history, and for his general mercies. That's what true worship is - not just lip service or obeying rules. Genuine praise form the heart, and the result of that is obedience.

I don't know about what this verse sounds like in the Greek, but in English the translators have said: "offer your bodies as a living sacrifice". Notice that it goes from plural (your bodies) to singular (a living sacrifice). We need to collectively as God's church throughout the world and as his people in a certain place work together to live as sacrifices for him. We need to spend time with friends and family who love God, being honest with each other, loving and helping each other, encouraging and rebuking each other, praying and looking at God's word together. If we are "brothers and sisters", adopted as God's children then we need to act like a family - we need to be deeply concerned for each other and to look after the needs of those around us. We need to deeply love each other, even loving those who we don't get on with easily (thats hard to do!)

I came to God's word this morning feeling tired and quite unmotivated to read it. Nevertheless God is faithful and he reminded me that I need to give it all to him. Are we willing to live our entire lives as sacrifices for God? Even when we don't feel like it?

God deserves and demands our everything - are we willing to give it?

1 John 1

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.

Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

Hunger and Thirst

Matthew 5:6
 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled."

This is the last of the Beatitudes which relates directly to our relationship with God. Blessed means under God's favour. It does not always mean physical blessing here, but God's favour is worth more then any blessing we could experience here and means eternal life with him in heaven.

Those who Hunger and Thirst. Those two attributes are not very common in the western world. We have so much available for us, but what Jesus is talking about here is an intense longing, forsaking everything else if you could only get this one thing. Like if you had not eaten and were about to die from it, or had not drunk water. That is how much we need to Love righteousness and seek after it. But first we need to realise that we need it. This again links back to the former beatitudes: If we are poor in spirit, then we see our need before God. Mourning is about Mourning over our sin. Meekness is an action which results from these two things, and hungering and thirsting for righteousness also stems from it. It is the opposite of self-righteousness, it is humility and realising that we cannot help ourselves. As a result of genuine faith and repentance we will seek to do good works. We will hunger and thirst for righteousness. We need to have an intense longing for it.

So, What is Righteousness? It is rightness in character before God and also rightness in actions before men. Obeying God's commands. Obviously, since we are all sinful we cannot make ourselves righteous before God. In fact, naturally we are the opposite - disobeying God continually. Yet we have hope: Jesus was righteous, he did not sin and he is God - so he did all that God requires. He died in our place, taking our sin and the punishment for it while we take his righteousness. We are forgiven for our sin and adopted as God's children! What a blessing! 

But while there is a once off side to righteousness, it is also part of 'sanctification' - we are continually becoming more like God, continually learning and growing and continually need to be hungering and thirsting for righteousness. This exhibits itself in our lives as good works and by fleeing from sin. So, are you living a life by which others will see God in you and be challenged by it? Are you striving to be righteous?